18 November 2009

Light my fire

the olympic torch is making its way through canada and it hit our town!

canada took on the ambitious goal of creating an olympic torch relay that allows 90% of all canadians to be within one hour of a relay path. this is the largest relay in olympic history. how cool? after coming from newfoundland, the torch entered nova scotia and today they came through halifax. the relay route went right down our street in FRONT of our apartment!!

we were out in front of our building around 5:30p. there was actually a runner exchange right where we were. the current torchbearer and olympic officials followed by official vancouver vehicles came down, lit the new torchbearers torch, and off he went past us. there wasnt a big hoopla but the participants and viewers were very excited. lucky for everyone, we had a perfect weather day for hundreds of people to be outside.

anyway, the big excitement (that we didnt go down and participate in) was that local olympians sidney crosby (hockey, duh) and sarah conrad (snowboarder) were the final two legs of the relay for the day. it ended at the base of citadel hill where they lit the community cauldron. apparently they also built a boarding ramp for sarah conrad to go down, but we couldnt find any videos/pics of that.

(the torch arriving; the torchbearer passing our apartment; and one of the CUTE little cartoon guys for the vancouver olympics. mukmuk is my favorite. he was on the back of one of the vehicles. check out all the mascots.)

after the relay passed our house, we went back inside to eat dinner. fun end note of the day: another pregnant woman had emailed interested in joining my budding prenatal group. yay!

The dorkier of your readers might be interested in knowing that Mukmuk is a Vancouver Island Marmot, and one of Canada's most endangered species. And yes, the real thing is just as cute as the cartoon.

I'm apparently the sea bear (Migo? Miga?) And I'm so brain dead from teaching that all I want to do is play the Thunderbird flying game... I STINK! I like the cute little anime movie, though... (How come MukMuk doesn't get featured? How did you even learn about his past?)

I think that not only do I love the official fan (who seems instrumental in many of the mascots' capers--recycling especially--and quite humble, as well) I also love Dave's link. And the fact that the stuffed marmots are wearing all-Canadian toques! Which they misspell togue. What is THAT? Here's something educational for you guys now that you live in Canada: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuque

Mukmuk is adorable and the mascots are fun. Used them as an assignment in computer class (6th graders). I was given a 30 min. synopsis on New Moon from my office aide. Too many 'likes' and too many 'and then' coming from a teenage girl. Waiting for you to tell us you have seen it . . .

currently living in helsinki, finland

this blog is about life since leaving michigan. my husband and i left our home state in 2008 for jobs, travel, and adventure. together we've lived in ann arbor for 9 years, france for 9 months, halifax for 3.5 years, and we've now lived in finland for 2.5 years. our daughter (X) joined us in 2010, and our son (Y) joined us in 2014, so they are now part of the adventure...